Thursday, December 12, 2013

North To Alaska! The Bird Rush is On! December 3 until……………

The title is not exactly that of Johnny Horton's popular
song, “North to Alaska,” about the gold rush, originally recorded and released in 1960, but the circumstances are very
similar if not almost identical! I flew from Phoenix, Arizona to Anchorage on December 3,
leaving at 11:55 am and arriving at about 6:20 pm.

﻿

Landing in Anchorage, just after sunset

I had been in communication with birding
friend Dave Sonnenborn, who was going to help me find the Dusky Thrush, which
was close to his neighborhood.I picked up
a rental car, because Dave was not planning to spend the whole day looking for
the Dusky Thrush.Besides, I still
needed Northern Goshawk, and needed a rental car to search.Dave was helping by finding some potential
locations for Northern Goshawk.

After picking up some dinner, I worked on updating my blog
and got to sleep relatively early.I got
up early and finished a draft of my blog post about my visit to St. John’s, New
Foundland.At 8:50 am next morning, December
4, Dave texted me, “R u awake.”Thus,
started the day of our search.We made
arrangements for me meet at Dave’s house at 9:30 am to start the search.I joined Dave in his vehicle, and he drove us
to the best spot to look on Lord Baranoff Drive very close to Dave’s home.It was quite cold about 12F and all the trees
were covered with hoar frost.We quickly
found a mixed flock of American Robins and Bohemian Waxwings that were feeding
on cherries but not the Mountain Ash fruit.The flock was moving around a lot, and Dave decided to pursue the major
part of the flock that flew away.I
stayed at the original location.We would
call each other if we found the Dusky Thrush.Soon after Dave left, a more slender thrush flew toward a cherry tree
along the street near where we parked but quickly turned and flew away,
apparently when it saw me standing in the street.That seemed very unlike the American Robins
and quite skittish behavior.I started
scanning in the direction that the bird flew and found the Dusky Thrush sitting
low in a tree along a nearby street behind the houses on Lord Baranoff.The Dusky Thrush was visible just above a
nearby house roof and was facing me showing the white center of the breast and
belly and the dark streaks along the sides of the breast and belly.I could not see the white supercilium, due to
the distance and the position of the Dusky Thrush.I
called Dave, but as soon as I told him that I had the Dusky Thrush, it flew
left and disappeared from view behind some houses and trees. Just
then John Puschock, Bill Sain and Scott Schuette arrived to help in the
search.Scott is the leader of St. Paul
Tours, and I first met him on St. Paul Island this fall, where Scott found the
first North American Common Redstart.We
all walked around the corner to St. Elias Street where I had seen the thrush
sitting and flying.John Puschock is the
owner and leader of Zugunruhe Birding Tours, which ran the Attu trip that I
took in May-June of this year.I was
planning to join John, Bill and Neil Hayward for a trip to Adak to try for the
Whooper Swan.We all watched and scanned
the flock of robins and waxwings but could not find the Dusky Thrush.Soon John, Bill and Scott left to drive
around the area to look for the larger robin flock as did Dave and I.Shortly, Dave got a phone call. John, Bill and Scott had the Dusky Thrush on
St. Elias.Dave and I drove back to find
them scanning the flock of American Robins, where we found the Dusky Thrush
hidden as usual behind tree branches.We
stayed in the area enjoying the Dusky Thrush.
What a great new bird for the year! I was able to get some documentary photos of this great bird.See photos which show the white center of the
breast and belly with dark streaking along the sides. Note the reddish brown or
orange on the wings and the distinct white supercilium.

Dusky Thrush in a cherry tree
relatively out in the open showing some of orange in wing

﻿

Dusky Thrush

After all people got to see it
well, including a new arrival Aaron Bowman (not Lang, sorry to both!) a very active Alaskan Birder, who
came with his young song in a carrier, the Dusky Thrush flew off, and we all went to Dave Sonnenborn’s house
to recover from the early morning cold and have coffee.Dave Sonnenborn gave me a location to look
for Northern Goshawk off of Rabbitt Creek Road, taking Clarke Road to Honey
Bear Lane.There is a broad valley up
the side of the mountain that can be watched and scanned for Northern
Goshawkfrom Honey Bear Lane.I stopped at my hotel room to pick up my wet
pants for some extra warmth and picked up some lunch on the way.Rabbit Creek Road is south off of the Old
Seward Highway and just north of Potter’s Marsh.As I drove up Rabbitt Creek Road, my front
wheel drive rental car started to slip on some hidden ice on the road
surface.However, I was able to make it
up the side of the valley to an overlook spot on Clarke Road near some
mailboxes and scanned and watched for a while, but found only a few
Black-billed Magpies and two Pine Grosbeaks.Then I moved further up the side of the valley to the entrance to Honey
Bear Lane, which was too steep for me to drive with the ice and snow covered
roads even with the stones applied to the surface for traction.I stayed in the area until about 2:30 to 3:00
pm, when light freezing rain and sleet started to fall.I left immediately, because it would not be
safe to try to negotiate the snow and ice covered roads with freezing rain
added to the mix.I never found a
Northern Goshawk.However, that night I
heard from Dave Sonnenborn that he took John, Bill and Scott up Arctic Valley Road
to look for ptarmigan, and they found a Northern Goshawk on the way back down
the road not too far up from the entrance to Arctic Valley Road.Go figure!That’s birding!

Thursday morning, December 6, I drove out to Arctic Valley
Road to look for the Northern Goshawk that Dave, John, Bill and Scott had found yesterday. The roads were slippery but negotiable with
slow careful driving. I arrived at about
10:30 am and drove slowly due to the road conditions up Arctic Valley Road past
the factory building on the left and up to the second and very large pull-off
on the right.I stopped and scanned
frequently.I drove from the entrance
past the golf course, now covered with snow, up to this second pull-off twice
but never found the Northern Goshawk.I
headed back to Anchorage to the Airport to catch my flight to Adak, but misjudged the time.The roads were quite icy and a number of
vehicles had slid off the road.I needed
to go slowly and needed to stop and fill my gas tank. I arrived at the gate too late to check my
bag to Adak, and carried the bag as a gate check bag.I lost a few things in the security check, a
bottle of rinse, some tooth paste and a knife.The gate agent was careless and threw my wet pants in the trash.However, I did make it on the flight to Adak,
which was critical, because there are only two flights per week to and from
Adak on Thursday and Sunday.The cost of
the flight and the lost time for my Big Year would be more expensive than the
lost items.The flight to Adak left at
about 2:00 pm and we arrived at about 4:00 pm.

Dusky Thrush is a Life Bird for the ABA area, number 812, and new for the year and raises my Big Year
total to 709 + 2 (White-cheeked Pintail and Common Redstart).

2 comments:

Thanks for the comment. Are you referring to daily bird lists or the overall year list to be entered into eBird? I am not sure what the overall list would contribute to the data base. At the start of my Big Year, I decided not to enter daily lists into eBird due to the time it takes to do so. I had not started using eBird before my Big Year and did not feel I had the time to devote to learning how to use it during my Big Year. A Big Year is very intensive, making and carrying out plans for sites to visit at the right time to actually see or hear the birds, making travel and overnight accommodation arrangements, keeping track of the overall list, doing a blog and still having time to be in the field actually birding plus eating and sleeping. I am doing this Big Year for fun, and am trying to minimize the work involved.

With regard to the Pine Bunting, are you referring to the Little Bunting in CA? I am counting the Little Bunting that I saw on Gambell. When I am in CA later this month, I will try to see this one, if there is time.